“That’s right.” Hannah watched as Kirby’s hands started to shake. She was no doctor, but Jordan High’s music teacher looked as if he were about to collapse. “Are you okay?”

“Shock,” Kirby forced the word out between bloodless lips.

“Come on. You’d better sit down.” Hannah guided Kirby to a chair and took one for herself. Kirby still looked as if a puff of air from a hair dryer could blow him over. Was he this squeamish at the mere mention of murder? Or did he have a personal reason for being so upset?

“I’m sorry I just blurted it out like that,” Hannah apologized, deciding to go for a fake pass and an end run. “I didn’t realize that you knew Brandi.”

Kirby blinked and a little color began to come back to his face. “I didn’t. Not really. Martin introduced us tonight. How was … “ Kirby gulped and cleared his throat. “How was she killed?”

“She was stabbed with my mother’s antique cake knife.”

Kirby groaned as if he couldn’t help himself, and Hannah went on full alert. His reaction was certainly overboard for someone who claimed he’d met Brandi only an hour or so ago. Rather than trying to couch her question in polite terms, as Andrea or her mother would have done, Hannah just came out with it.

“So … “ she said, staring at Kirby closely. “Don’t you think you overreacted if you just met Brandi tonight?”

Kirby nodded, looking a little embarrassed. “I know I did. It’s just that murder is so horrible, especially when it’s violent. And she was alive just minutes ago. It made me think of how short life can be, and it scared me silly.”

“I understand,” Hannah said, even though she wouldn’t have bought Kirby’s excuse at a fire sale. It was true that most people would be disturbed if someone they’d just met was killed. And some of the those people might think about life and how transient it was. But Kirby had come close to fainting before she’d pushed him down in the chair. No one was that sensitive just hearing about the death of someone they barely knew.

“Kirby?” Hannah roused him. It was time to get down to business and pursue his strange reaction later.

“Yes?”

“Can your group play for a couple more hours? Mike needs to keep people distracted while he investigates.”

“Of course we can,” Kirby said, looking a little calmer now that Hannah had given him a task to do. “Are they going to make an announcement about … you know?”

“No. No one except a few select people know about it. That’s why we need you to keep this completely under wraps and play for as long as you can. We want people to think that everything is completely normal, except for the weather.”

“Got it,” Kirby said, nodding sharply. “Don’t worry about us, Hannah. I brought extra sheet music just in case. We can play all night, if that’s what it takes.”